Living Life at 60... beats per minute
by Deena Berke

Editor's note: The author, Deena Berke, is a founding member of the Ecovillage at Ithaca, where she has lived for eight years. She was a participant in Second Journey's May Visioning Council, which was held at Summer Hill Farm in Sherburne NY. Because of her dual interests in music and healing (reflected on in the article below), she is also planning to attend the October 13-16 Visioning Council on Health and Well-Being in the Second Half of Life, which will be held at the Wildacres Retreat Center in western North Carolina.

“…playing music produces a feeling more exquisite than the sweetest nectar
this world has to offer. It is the sound, smell and taste of grace.”

— Kenny Warner, Effortless Mastery

 
For me, a symbol for living at a decreased pace is to set a metronome to 60 beats per minute — in musical terms, largo, lento. In English,  R E A L   S L O W. At 60 beats per minute, you can experience each note; its beginning and its end; its life process, its inner beauty.

Here’s some background on what led me to this insight:

I’ve played classical guitar since I was a teenager. For me, music was always a sanctuary, a great comfort. I played “only for myself,” however, and was extremely shy about performing for others. Because of that, I did not become a professional musician or a music teacher; I became a special education teacher. I retired from that profession when I was 55. After I retired, I took guitar lessons and I practiced a lot. As I was approaching my 60^th birthday, I began to think about “giving back to society” in a way that came from my most authentic, deepest self. It was obvious to me that this giving had to be connected with guitar playing.

At that point, I found and began the Music for Healing and Transitions Program, a one-year program that teaches amateur musicians to play “bedside” for people who are ill and dying. In the program we talk about healing, not curing; and we talk about service, not performance. We study books about the physiology and psychology of sound and music as it relates to varying states of health and illness.

In the program, we learned that the most calming music is played at heartbeat rhythm, between 40 and 60 beats per minute. This music should be simple in structure, repetitive and spacious. In it there’s a feeling of “being” rather than “doing;” of “no place to go, nothing to do,” of “dropping in” spiritually. These are all terms used in yoga. In yoga and in music we find a stillness that opens the beauty of the soul to its Godness.

In the time I’ve been studying in this program, I’ve learned to slow music down and experience the deepest sense of comfort it can bring. There’s such a thing as a “walking meditation”; playing really slowly is a “playing meditation.” This is something I can use for myself as well as give to others when I play for them.